This subproject is one of many research subprojects utilizing the resources provided by a Center grant funded by NIH/NCRR. The subproject and investigator (PI) may have received primary funding from another NIH source, and thus could be represented in other CRISP entries. The institution listed is for the Center, which is not necessarily the institution for the investigator. While the idea that "exercise is good for children" seems axiomatic, translating this vague notion into biological mechanisms that could be used to actually influence health has proved to be difficult. With the alarming increase in obesity/metabolic syndrome and asthma in children[unreadable]both conditions uniquely tied to levels of exercise and physical activity in children[unreadable]never before has the need for such research been so great. This Program is built on recent exciting discoveries, preliminary studies, and technological advances leading to a "phase shift'in illuminating the link between exercise and health in the growing child. The objectives of this Program are: 1) To investigate how exercise paradoxically alters growth mediators, stress/inflammatory factors, and related elements of oxidative stress in a manner that can influence health in children;2) To determine how these exercise mechanisms are altered by gender, maturational status, and the common pediatric conditions of asthma and obesity/metabolic syndrome. (These mechanisms are of particular import during "critical periods" of growth and development when exercise and habitual physical activity may affect health not only in the short term but for the life of the organism);3) To create a scientific environment designed to link basic scientific discoveries to clinical relevancy. The 3 Projects that make up this Program are designed to: 1) examine molecular mechanisms that link stress/inflammatory and growth factor responses to exercise in muscle using the rat model;2) discover how exercise stimulates gene regulation and intracellular production of stress/inflammatory and growth factors in leukocytes of children with asthma;and 3) explore the impact of exercise associated production of reactive oxygen species on stress/inflammatory and growth factors in children with metabolic syndrome.